JeremyBoak
Welcome
editHi, Dr. Boak. Welcome to Wikipedia. It is good to have more oil-shale experts around. So far we have had some contributions from Alan Burnham but he is not very active. It seems that also user:Dirtburner has expertise in this field but he is contributing very occasionally. There are some contributors from related areas (e.g. petrology) who have assisted time-to-time with these articles, but they are not dealing with this area in particular. It has happened that the main contributor to oil shale related articles is probably me. However, although I have quite a good knowledge about this topic and it has been my hobby for a long time, I don't have any professional link to it. Also user:Novickas has been great contributor to these articles. This is more or less all. Therefore your assistance would be valuable. Of course, there are lot of rules about editing in Wikipedia which are sometimes complicated even for long-term editors, not talking about newcomers. Therefore, if you have any question or need any assistance, please let me know.
So far we have two articles (Oil shale and Shale oil extraction) assessed as featured articles, which is the highest quality standard in Wikipedia. Two more articles (Oil shale industry and Oil shale geology) are assessed as good articles. However, both of them need some additional work to maintain their good article assessment and even more to reach to the featured article level. Other oil shale-series articles are Shale oil, Oil shale reserves, History of the oil shale industry, and Environmental impact of the oil shale industry. I have started to work with History of the oil shale industry to get it ready for the good article nomination but it still needs a lot of time and I am mainly able to deal with that article at weekends. In addition we have some country specific articles like Oil shale in Estonia (currently waiting assessment for good article), Oil shale in China, Oil shale in Australia, Oil shale in Jordan etc, but not Oil shale in the United States. We have also some company and technology specific article. As you see, there are lot of work to be done and your assistance is appreciated. Once more, welcome. Beagel (talk) 07:37, 13 September 2014 (UTC)
Beagel - I am not sure how to reply to talk messages, as I am unfamiliar with the Wikipedia editing world. I know Alan Burnham well, and would love to spend some time working on all the articles, but may need a little help navigating! I am currently loaded down with work for the 34th Oil Shale Symposium in Golden CO October 13-15, but will hope to reestablish communication later in the fall.JeremyBoak (talk) 15:43, 15 September 2014 (UTC)